VICIOUS E-MAIL ATTACKS have become a standard part of the political mudslinger’s arsenal, and presidential candidates are not immune. John McCain and John Kerry were both attacked in e-mails filled with misrepresentations and outright lies. Now Senator Barack Obama is being targeted.
E-mails are circulating that paint the senator as unpatriotic, a closet free-trader, and a Muslim (read: terrorist). None of these claims is true, but that doesn’t stop people from forwarding them to their entire e-mail address book.
Fortunately, a credible Web site exists that debunks myths, lies, and misprepresentations, including those fueled by rampant e-mail exchanges. The site is www.snopes.com. This site is perhaps best known for getting to the bottom of urban legends and e-mail hoaxes, but it also tackles political slander and character assassination. According to the online encyclopedia “Wikipedia,” CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and other media use Snopes (pronounced “snoops”) to run down rumors in their reporting and analysis.
Below are some of the most egregious slanders against Obama that Snopes has debunked. They are summarized to meet space restrictions. Note that Snopes reveals the sources used to establish the actual facts.
Myth: Sen. Barack Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Truth: A photo of Sen. Obama allegedly refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance was taken at Sen. Tom Harkin’s fish fry in Iowa, where those attending were singing the national anthem, NOT reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Obama said, "My grandfather taught me how to say the Pledge of Allegiance when I was two. During the Pledge of Allegiance, you put your hand over your heart. During the national anthem you sing." While in the Illinois Senate, Obama voted to require the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited each school day by students in secondary education institutions receiving public funds. (Washington Post)
Myth: An Obama aide told Canadian officials his anti-NAFTA stance is just “political maneuvering.”
Truth: Austan Goolsbee, the aide in question, says his words were misrepresented by a Canadian Embassy official whose internal memo was leaked to CTV. “I certainly did not use that phrase in any way,” he said. The Canadian Embassy expressed regret at the misinterpretation. Obama’s record on NAFTA has been clear. Obama said NAFTA and CAFTA were not in the best interest of the American worker, "because they did not contain the sorts of labor provisions and environmental provisions" that they should have. In Ohio, Obama took a stronger position: ”I will make sure that we renegotiate. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. . . . As president, what I want to be is an advocate on behalf of workers.” (AP/CNN/CBS)
Myth: Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim and was sworn into office on the Quran.
Truth: This attack is doubly insulting, because it implies that being Muslim is somehow un-American as well as lying about Obama’s religious background. Sen. Obama has never been a Muslim, never prayed in a mosque, is a committed Christian who has been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years, and used his personal bible when he was sworn into office. (Too many sources to cite)
More Truth: At his swearing in, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, a Muslim, used a Quran that had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Apparently both Ellison and Jefferson took seriously the first amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. People who send this malicious e-mail – not so much. (Washington Post)
Myth: Senator Barack Obama’s church is anti-white and anti-American.
Truth: Trinity United Church pastor Jeremiah Wright evoked a firestorm of controversy when a video of his sermon attacking the United States surfaced. In response, Barack Obama gave an eloquent speech outlining the confused, emotional, and often contradictory approaches to race Americans exhibit. Regarding his own position, he said, “I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived the Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners — an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.”
Obama’s 30-minute speech is a thoughtful essay on a subject that makes Americans of all races uncomfortable, and which we will be struggling with for many decades to come. This link will take you to a page containing the written text and streaming video of the speech.
